The Nobodies Album: A Novel [Hardcover]

Carolyn Parkhurst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2010

From the bestselling author of The Dogs of Babel comes a dazzling literary mystery about the lengths to which some people will go to rewrite their past.

Bestselling novelist Octavia Frost has just completed her latest book—a revolutionary novel in which she has rewritten the last chapters of all her previous books, removing clues about her personal life concealed within, especially a horrific tragedy that befell her family years ago.

On her way to deliver the manuscript to her editor, Octavia reads a news crawl in Times Square and learns that her rock-star son, Milo, has been arrested for murder. Though she and Milo haven’t spoken in years—an estrangement stemming from that tragic day—she drops everything to go to him.

The “last chapters” of Octavia’s novel are layered throughout The Nobodies  Album—the scattered puzzle pieces to her and Milo’s dark and troubled past. Did she drive her son to murder? Did Milo murder anyone at all? And what exactly happened all those years ago? As the novel builds to a stunning reveal, Octavia must consider how this story will come to a close.

Universally praised for her candid explorations of the human psyche, Parkhurst delivers an emotionally gripping and resonant mystery about a mother and her son, and about the possibility that one can never truly know another person.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Carolyn Parkhurst on The Nobodies Album

Before I’d ever written a novel, I imagined that authors must be able to point to two dates on the calendar and say, "Here’s when I began writing this book, and here’s when I finished it." I knew that the middle part--everything in between the moment when you sit down with a blank page and the moment when you type "The End"--was going to be murky. But I figured that this much, at least--the calculation of how long you spent working on it--would be clear.

As it turns out, I was wrong. The layering of questions and images and half-phrases that eventually coalesces into the seed of a novel is subtle and complicated and begins before you commit to a single word. And, as I probably should have known, the work doesn’t end the day you turn the manuscript over to your editor. The day of publication, at least, serves as a convenient endpoint. Finally, the author can say, "Okay. I’ve done all I can. Time to move on." At least, that’s what I always thought.

Then I heard a story about an author who had made the decision to revise a short story she’d written more than thirty years earlier. The story had been published, anthologized, taught in university classes... and she’d decided it wasn’t finished, after all. Honestly, I found the idea unsettling. I was a little annoyed with the writer in question for opening a door that I had assumed to be closed.

But like it or not, the idea stayed with me. Soon I had a premise--what would happen if a writer decided to change the endings to every one of her books?--and in that premise, there was a character whose desires and motivations were opaque enough that I wanted to figure them out. I was already thinking about the novels this author might have written, and how I would construct their last chapters: An epidemic which wipes out people’s memories, but only the bad ones. A survivor of the Titanic finds himself haunted by strange images appearing in the cartoons he draws. A ghost-mother wages a custody battle between the living and the dead. I was already wondering: Why is she doing this? Does she think she can rewrite her past? Or is she hoping to create a new ending for her own future?

I began writing The Nobodies Album the day I heard that news story. Or else it was the day I saw the first sentence in my head and typed the words onto a page: There are some stories no one wants to hear. Or maybe the day when I realized that there was going to be a murder to solve. I can’t really say.

As for when I’ll be finished with the story? It remains to be seen. --Carolyn Parkhurst

(Photo © Marion Ettlinger)

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From Publishers Weekly

Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel) returns with the story of Octavia Frost: widow, successful novelist, and estranged mother of Milo, lead singer of an up-and-coming band. Milo and Octavia haven't spoken in almost four years, but their separation ends when Octavia learns (from the Times Square news crawl) that Milo has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend. In short order, Octavia travels to the West Coast, determined to find out who really killed Bettina Moffett. Octavia's quest is peppered with short excerpts from her novels—in original and revised form—though the bits and scraps sometimes come off as filler instead of metafictional excursions into stories Octavia revises for publication and for her own purposes. (Not insignificantly, Milo's band is called Pareidolia, after the human compulsion to see, for instance, the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast.) Parkhurst's voice sucks the reader in immediately—the gift of a real storyteller—but the mixed genre structure will turn off as many readers as it works for, and the mystery plot is thinner than it should be.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (June 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385527691
• ISBN-13: 978-0385527699
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #691,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The End?, May 6, 2010

By 

Nicole Del Sesto (Northern Cal) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nobodies Album: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

There's a lot going on in this book.

The framework that sort of houses the multi-layered story is somewhat of a murder mystery. It's not the strongest part of the story (in my opinion) but definitely works to house the rest of the story: What's most important ... the relating and the relationships.

Olivia Frost, a fairly successful author, has decided that her 8th novel should be new endings for her previous seven books. She's estranged from her rock-star son, until he's accused of murder, and they have tragedy in their family history. The details of their past, and snippets of each of the "alternate endings" are woven throughout the book.

Reading the "endings" was like having short stories in the midst of a novel, and though I hated being jarred out of the main story, I really enjoyed those parts and as with most short stories, they were over just as I was wishing there was more.

Parkhurst does grief and family dynamics so well. There are scenes between the mother and son that are so relatable to me, I felt she could have plucked them right out of my own dialog. There's darkness and sadness, and a little bit of humor.

The writing is great, and as with Parkhurst's previous novels, she really creates atmosphere and emotion. It's a really fast-paced read.

I enjoyed it immensely, and will now begin the wait for Parkhurt's next, and hoping it won't be a terribly long wait.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On Motherhood And Murder: Changing The Ending Doesn't Automatically Change The Story, June 15, 2010

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nobodies Album: A Novel (Hardcover)

Carolyn Parkhurst's "The Nobodies Album" is, on the surface, a fairly routine murder mystery. But describing it as such is to shortchange the complexities of this unique, uncompromising, and pretty wonderful novel. In addition to the central mystery, Parkhurst delivers one of the most searing and unflinching looks at familial alienation one is likely to encounter. Layered into an unconventional literary narrative, "The Nobodies Album" confronts how people cope with tragedy and how they can come to terms with and struggle to change the existence they've fallen into. Meaningful and emotionally satisfying, I ended up feeling that the central plot device (the murder itself and its resolution) to be the least compelling thing about the book.

Centered around a famous novelist Octavia Frost, "The Nobodies Album" explores her troubled relationship with her son Milo. When Milo, a renowned alt-rocker in San Francisco, discovers his fiancée brutally murdered after a night in which he has blacked out--he finds himself the prime suspect in the international media circus that follows. Having been estranged from Milo for many years, Octavia sees this as a chance for reconnection and redemption. The two share a difficult past, their relationship never having fully recovered from the accidental death of Octavia's husband and daughter. And it is the tentative progress of their bond that propels the heart of Parkhurst's story.

The grand success of "The Nobodies Album" rests on the character of Octavia Frost. Maddening and emotionally distant, it is her struggle to try to put the past into a meaningful context that drives the narrative. In alternate chapters, we are treated to various excerpts from her past novels in addition to their newly revised endings. Her current project (the titular experiment called "The Nobodies Album") is to alter these pages to reflect her current state of mind--and, in a way, erase some of the more personal and painful aspects of herself from the books. But dealing with Milo in the present showcases the importance of building on and confronting past mistakes as opposed to trying to make them disappear. Octavia is a difficult character to love, or even like, and yet I identified with her in a thousand ways. Parkhurst doesn't shy away from the unpleasant aspects of her personality and, in being so frank, has created a character that will endure in my memory for many months to come.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parkhurst's Worlds, July 5, 2010

By 

Jeanne Kern "author of DESTINATION: LOVE--AND... (Lincoln NE) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Nobodies Album: A Novel (Hardcover)

Other reviewers have referred to the murder mystery as the central plot point and thus what the book is about. It isn't. The mystery is secondary, and the genius of this book is Parkhurst's ability to once again give us a wealth of characters, each of whom she makes mulit-faceted for the readers. Central is the writer, of course, and we discover her as layers and layers peel away. She, like all Parkhurst's characters is deliciously complex. The novels she has "written" and the reasons she wants to revisit them and the ways they relate to what we are learning about her life--Pure Delight.

Character development, quirky and original plots, and simply beautiful writing are the prizes waiting for readers of Parkhurst.

I adore all three of Parkhurst's books, and I recommend them with virtual applause.